Cloud Architecture Engineer, Senior Principal

EVERFI

19h•Remote

About The Position

We are seeking a Cloud Architecture Engineer, Senior Principal to support the reliability, scalability, security, and strategic evolution of EVERFI's PaaS systems, while acting as a force multiplier for the broader engineering organization. The Cloud Architecture Engineer, Senior Principal is expected to operate with a high degree of autonomy, make consequential architectural decisions, and represent cloud infrastructure to senior leadership as needed.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent combination of education and experience required; Master's degree strongly preferred
10+ years of progressive professional experience in cloud infrastructure, platform engineering, or systems architecture
Minimum 3–5 years of experience operating at the Principal or Staff Engineer level, with demonstrated ownership of enterprise-wide architectural decisions
Proven track record of leading large-scale cloud transformations, platform modernizations, or migrations in high-growth SaaS environments
Experience in EdTech, FinTech, or compliance-heavy industries strongly preferred
AWS Solutions Architect – Professional (or equivalent Azure/GCP professional-level certification)
AWS Security Specialty or Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP)
Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or equivalent
Cloud Platforms: Deep expertise in AWS (required); hands-on experience with Azure and/or GCP preferred
Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, Pulumi, or CDK at enterprise scale
Containerization & Orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes (EKS/AKS/GKE), Kafka
CI/CD & DevOps: Advanced pipeline design with Jenkins, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, or equivalent
Networking & Security: TCP/IP, DNS, SMTP, HTTP, VPCs, zero-trust architecture, WAF, distributed networks
Programming & Scripting: Python, Go, Ruby on Rails, or Bash (proficiency in at least two)
Data & Storage: SQL and NoSQL (Postgres and equivalents); familiarity with data lake and lakehouse architectures
Observability: Datadog, New Relic, Prometheus/Grafana, or equivalent full-stack observability platforms
AI/ML Infrastructure: Familiarity with cloud-native AI/ML infrastructure (SageMaker, Vertex AI, or equivalent) preferred
Open-Source Ecosystem: Extensive experience contributing to and consuming open-source tooling in production environments
Web Services & APIs: Expert-level knowledge of REST, RPC, SOA, and API design principles

Nice To Haves

Master's degree strongly preferred
Experience in EdTech, FinTech, or compliance-heavy industries strongly preferred
AWS Solutions Architect – Professional (or equivalent Azure/GCP professional-level certification)
AWS Security Specialty or Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP)
Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or equivalent
hands-on experience with Azure and/or GCP preferred
Familiarity with data lake and lakehouse architectures
Familiarity with cloud-native AI/ML infrastructure (SageMaker, Vertex AI, or equivalent) preferred

Responsibilities

Shape and execute the multi-year cloud architecture strategy for EVERFI's platform, aligning infrastructure direction with business growth, product roadmap, and organizational scalability goals
Lead enterprise-wide architecture reviews and establish cloud governance standards, guardrails, and best practices adopted across all engineering teams
Identify and evaluate emerging technologies (e.g., AI/ML infrastructure, FinOps, platform engineering tooling) and make forward-looking recommendations to VP and CTO leadership
Serve as a technical decision-maker and escalation point for complex, cross-functional cloud architecture challenges
Drive the evolution of EVERFI's platform from reactive infrastructure management to proactive, resilience-first platform engineering
Design, build, maintain, and monitor internal PaaS systems in the cloud at enterprise scale — with a focus on high availability, fault tolerance, and cost efficiency
Lead the implementation of geographically redundant, multi-region, and highly available architectures capable of supporting EVERFI's growth trajectory
Architect and oversee the full lifecycle of cloud deployment tooling, ensuring CI/CD systems are continuously optimized for speed, safety, and developer experience
Design reliable, interoperable components and utility libraries that underpin EVERFI's applications across engineering teams
Architect and own a comprehensive metrics, monitoring, and observability system enabling full-stack visibility, proactive incident response, and SLA enforcement
Ensure all cloud environments are designed and administered in accordance with company security guidelines, SOC 2 compliance requirements, FERPA, and applicable data privacy regulations
Architect zero-trust networking, identity and access management (IAM), and data encryption frameworks across EVERFI's cloud environments
Partner with Security and Legal teams to lead cloud risk assessments and drive remediation of architectural vulnerabilities at the platform level
Act as a senior technical advisor to Engineering, Product, and Executive leadership on all cloud infrastructure decisions — translating complex technical tradeoffs into clear business impact
Champion engineering culture: establish and promote best practices for reliability, performance, and operational excellence across all teams consuming cloud infrastructure
Build training programs, playbooks, and knowledge resources that upskill engineering teams on cloud operations, architecture patterns, and performance optimization
Represent the Cloud Architecture function in cross-functional planning, capacity modeling, and strategic workforce design discussions
Provide mentorship, technical guidance, and career development support to Principal, Staff, and Senior Engineers on the Cloud Architecture team and adjacent teams
Participate in hiring, technical interviews, and calibration discussions as needed
Participate in an on-call rotation to provide emergency incident support as needed, modeling expected standards of operational excellence for the team